


Untitled Cap+Bucky DMS Crossover

by H3C70R



Category: Joe Ledger Series - Jonathan Maberry, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:26:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9569453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H3C70R/pseuds/H3C70R
Summary: H.Y.D.R.A. and The Cabal are working together towards an unknown goal.  Cap and Bucky are loaned out to the DMS in hopes of finding out what exactly is going on, and to hopefully stop it.Another severely unfinished work that I'm not really sure what to do with.  I like what I have but the real meat of the story is still a mystery to me.  Unclear if I'll update/finish this.





	

H.Y.D.R.A. Outpost  
Graz, Austria  
08:00AM

Steve Rogers and James Buchanan Barnes we were crouched in the snow, taking cover within a patch of thick evergreens. Their new team faced them, awaiting orders.

Steve didn't particularly like this team being dubbed 'The Howling Commandos'. he felt it disrespectful to those who'd died under the name in WWII. Bucky thought it struck fear, adding to the immortal mystique of Captain America and the Winter Soldier. 

They knew it wasn't the time to get into it, but Bucky saw Steve flinch when one of the new recruits asked, 

"What are the Howling Commandos getting into this time boss?"

Bucky answered for Steve, fearing he might use some words he'd regret later,

"Nothing special, by the book infiltration. We need computers, hard drives, laptops, most importantly, we need paper records, if available. We don't know how long some of these projects have been in play, and I can't imagine too many supervillains give two shits about digitizing their old documents,"

That got the smirk from Steve it was designed to, who was able to take over the briefing,

"Prisoners are not a priority, neither are casualties. We are not at war with Austria, and if any of these guys are nationals, it'll spell bad press when the body bags are are on the front page of every newspaper."

One of the recruits let out a light chuckle at Cap's mention of newspapers, Steve and Bucky both caught it, Steve didn't let it go,

"Excuse me, young man, do find this to be a laughing matter?"

The recruit snapped his attention to his squad leader,

"I was just, um-"

"You were just what, to busy daydreaming to pay attention to the darn mission? Is that it? Make no mistake son, you have the title of a Howling Commando, I was made to give you that patch. Prove you deserve it. Do we understand each other?"

Steve gave the recruit a warm grin with the warning, it almost seemed friendly.

"Yes. Sir."

Bucky stepped in again,

"Alright, it's time to earn your keep around here. Let's do this, quick and quiet."

Cap and Bucky each took three man teams with them. Bucky tried to get the smart-mouth with him, but it looked like he wanted to prove something going with Cap.

 

H.Y.D.R.A. Outpost  
Graz, Austria  
Back Entrance  
08:04AM

Steve took the front doors. He could have the big shout-y kick in moment, Bucky always preferred the path less travelled. His team came up to the keycard scanner at the back door. One of the new recruits, Kyle Moran, a medium height, broad chested man, who despite his looks, had a delicate touch and was great with electronics, had the door open in under thirty seconds.

The team was inside, crouched and waiting for Cap to come barging in. When the front doors burst open, both teams converged on the main computer room, Bucky taking the high ground and Steve taking the low ground.

They needn't have bothered with the over careful tactics, everyone here was dead. The Howling Commandos looked to Cap for new orders.

"Whatever information we can salvage, grab it fast. We need to get out of here on the double."

Bucky sent his team downstairs to help search the main rooms, he searched the catwalks of the upper level for anything hidden and possibly interesting. His metal arm had a few new toys installed, scanners, sensors, various gadgets that could prove useful in the field.

He walked along the cavernous rock wall with the metal hand's fingers lightly brushing against it. He felt a small vibration in his ring finger, there was a hidden electronics panel,

"Kyle, up here."

Kyle Moran ran up the steps to the spot on the wall Bucky was touching,

"Sir?"

"There's a hidden panel here, get it open, figure out what it triggers, yell if you find anything, I'm continuing my sweep."

With a nod, Kyle got to work and Bucky continued searching. Only a few feet later Bucky found another hidden panel. Quickening his pace, he found a panel about every five feet on the back wall of the compound. By the time he'd identified all the spots Kyle had gotten the first one open, and figured out what it led to.

"Sir! I definitely found something!"

Bucky jogged back to him, Cap left the rest of the recruits to their search to see what Bucky's 'newfangled finger-finders' found. They both looked at stacks of manila folders, Cap reached out and grabbed one, flipping it open to it's first page.

"The Cabal?"

Bucky shot Steve a serious and worrying look, he wanted to talk privately. They stepped out of range of the recruits.

"I do not like the look you gave me over there. How serious is this?"

"I was loaned out to this 'Cabal' a handful of times by H.Y.D.R.A., as far as I knew they'd been dismantled years ago, some super-spook who goes by the name 'Deacon' and a team of top notch international shooters. The only reason my involvement didn't get me killed is because I'm already supposed to be dead. They didn't know to look for me."

Bucky paused for a beat, he'd just mentioned 'Deacon', He shouldn't have done that, hopefully Steve would gloss over it, not likely though.

Steve prodded Bucky to start talking again

"This Cabal is a threat?"

"Presently? I have no idea, this could just be record keeping. I can imagine some of their research and dossiers were saved, they needed an ally to hide what was important, I suppose that ally was, or still is, H.Y.D.R.A."

Steve followed the logic, but didn't like where it ended,

"Let's see what else we find before we draw any solid conclusions."

All the false panels contained mountains of information, Bucky and Cap stood by as Kyle got the last one open. Bucky reached in and plucked a folder out.

 

The Warehouse  
Baltimore, MD  
08:10AM

"Top one, should be the last chronologically, dated 2009. I think this Cabal may still be active."

Mr. Church hadn't caught the entire conversation, to his knowledge the S.H.I.E.L.D. comm frequencies had been permenantly jammed after H.Y.D.R.A. tore the agency apart from the inside. It was interesting to see James Buchanan Barnes and Steve Rogers pillaging a H.Y.D.R.A. outpost in Austria. Even more interesting that they were on the old, crystal clear, S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies. 

Definitely most interesting to Church was the alarm that pinged on his laptop, indicating communications regarding open DMS cases. Church always kept his file on The Cabal open.

Despite the fact no one could hear him, he still said aloud,

"Seems we have a common enemy Captain."

He picked up his phone and dialed Linden Brierly,

"Deacon. What can I do for you?"

"Why was I not made aware that S.H.I.E.L.D was operational again. You know our shared resources have helped take down many national and international threats."

"They aren't operational. Agent Coulson still liaises with The Avengers via Homeland, but that's it."

Church didn't hear a lie in Brierly's voice,

"Allow me to backtrack, an alarm bell was set off by Captain America and his team doing a raid in Austria. Their mention of The Cabal over their comm channels alerted my personal laptop. No one else knows about this. They were on the old S.H.I.E.L.D. channels."

Brierly took in the information. Someone was off the reservation here. He didn't know who and had to be careful.

"The Avengers and The Howling Commandos both have new frequencies they should be using. Is it possible this was done purposefully to alert you?"

"I've never worked with any of those men."

"I can't say anything about this directly, but you're a smart man Deacon, look at Bucky's files, real close. I think you were dangerously close to the Winter Soldier more times than you care to know. "

Church surmised this was meant to scare him off. It didn't. Whatever agenda Brierly was playing at, he was playing it very carefully. Usually a lot more helpful and a lot less vague,

"Thank you for the tip."

Church disconnected the call. He opened a new window on his computer and pulled up the DMS file on James Buchanan Barnes.

 

Joe's Apartment  
Baltimore, MD  
08:45AM

Joe Ledger's cellphone had been ringing for the past few minutes. He hoped beyond hope that if he willed it hard enough, the damned thing would stop going off. It didn't. Once again disproving his own psychic abilities, he reached out and grabbed it.

"It's my day off."

"Hello Captain,"

It was Church, of course.

"I need you at The Warehouse ASAP. Some surprising new developments have occurred in regards to our open case on The Cabal."

"How many farewell tours are these Nazi fucks gonna take?"

Church disconnected without responding.

Joe sat up in bed, for once in their lives Ghost and Cobbler were getting along and napping on the empty side of the bed. He shifted his weight too much, Ghost woke up and shooed Cobbler away.

"Can't fool me you big mutt, you two were getting along."

Ghost gave Joe his best "I am seriously going to eat you" look, he dropped the issue.

"Come on, time to go chew on some bad guys."

Ghost gave a low whuff of approval, and they were on our way.

 

Howling Commandos Mobile Command Center  
Graz, Austria  
09:07AM

All the Howling Commandos were carrying ridiculous amounts of extra weight trying to haul all the records they'd found, as well as dozens of internal and external hard drives. None of them thought they would have found this much information at one go, so the sleds they had to pack it all in were insufficent. Cap got a lot of looks from his soldiers, they knew he was superhuman, but they'd never seen how much weight it took to actually tire the guy out. He looked almost comically small under the mountain of boxes he was trying very carefully not to drop on his squadmates.

Once back at the command center, everything was set down for later inspection, first they had to call in enough air transport for the team and the findings, they needn't stay in Austria any longer than they have to. Cap sent Moran over to the communications hub and set him about the task of radioing in to their home base in the US. Before Steve could even get his mask/helmet off Moran was trying to get his attention,

"Sir, Captain, um, someone just called us... says he wants to speak with you, and Bucky, privately."

Steve shouted for Bucky and went over to radio, he was startled when a man on one of the computer screens addressed him.

"Captain Rodgers, is Sergeant Barnes with you?"

Still slightly bewildered, it took him a second to respond,

"Um, yes, he will be shortly, and we're clearing out the tent, you said you wanted to speak in private."

No trace of emotion from the man on the screen, an intimidating one at that. Tall, blocky, looked up there in the years somewhat, but Steve knew better, even over a video conference he could see this man as the formidable force he surely was. Bucky had finally caught up and was standing next to Steve. When he looked up, he recognized the man immediately, it had been a very long time since they'd almost met, but he knew the face, the body language. His eyes went wide,

"Holy shit. The Deacon."

is all he was able to muster, Church continued on as if the interruption hadn't occurred.

"I am Mr. Church, the head of a deeply covert branch of special operations that I am now clearing you into, The Department of Military Sciences, otherwise known as The DMS. Who's decision was it to un-jam and use the old S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies, and why was this done?"

the question held in the air for a few seconds, Steve didn't know why he would have to answer to this man, and Bucky was scared that The Deacon could kill him through the screen somehow. Neither answered.

"Gentlemen, I have been busy making some very interesting phone calls, Avengers or not, this is not coming down on you in any other way besides poorly right now, please persuade me to think differently."

Bucky cleared his throat and responded,

"It was my decision, sir, I suspected The Cabal to still be active, I didn't have any hard evidence until an old contact of mine, I mean Cold War old, ancient, he sent a message to the Remote Typewriter I keep on a shelf in my bedroom. I didn't think the thing even still worked. He told me H.Y.D.R.A. was trying to bring back an even older evil. He didn't get to finish the message, I presume he was murdered. I couldn't know for sure, but I had a hunch it was the Cabal. It's why I had our earpieces set to those defunct channels, I didn't want anyone to hear about this before you did, I figured it would ring some bells in the right places."

Steve looked at Bucky in hurt astonishment, how had he not heard any of this until now? He wanted to interrupt, but he knew better,

"We go check out the compound, and sure enough, we find files on The Cabal, way more recent than I would have anticipated, I think my contact was on the wrong end of this thing, the sleeper has been awakened already, so to speak."

Church mulled that around in his head for a second,

"It is to your benefit that we are after the same evil here, Sergeant Barnes, I have been doing some reading as well, do you know how hard it is to get un-redacted versions of your files? Buried deeper in government red tape than I've had to dig for things before. The things you did to some of my men under the guise of The Cabal can not be forgiven, Now-"

Steve ripped the cables out from behind the monitor they had been talking at, it was the only way he knew to turn it off.

"Bucky, what the hell is this?"

"More jobs for the Soviets back in the brainwashed days, that's it, I was aimed at some of his soldiers and did as I was ordered. We need to get back in touch with The Deacon, that conversation wasn't over Steve."

He couldn't believe what was coming out of Bucky's mouth,

"That man stopped just short of directly threatening you, and only because I pulled those cables, which... not the best idea I know, definitely expensive, I can probably get Tony to shuffle around some money... back to the point, I need to know more about this, as your friend and as your superior officer, and you know I don't like pulling rank Bucky."

He'd been backed into a corner, he had to tell Steve everything, it was the only he'd understand that they needed The Deacon, or Church as he seemed to call himself nowadays.

So he took a steadying breath, and told him everything.

 

*SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENS THAT I DON'T HAVE PLANNED OUT YET*

 

Cabal/H.Y.D.R.A. Safehouse  
St. Petersburg, Russia  
03:15AM

Cap, Bucky, Moran, and the members of Echo Team at the moment, Joe, Top, and Bunny, were buddy checking their gear and going over the plan of attack. Joe pulled up 3D blueprints on his PDA and sent them to everyone's tactical glasses. 

Steve audibly gasped in amazement and immediately felt like an idiot. It was bad enough he'd missed 8 tracks, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, Betamax and the advent of CD's, DVD's, and Minidiscs. He could barely wrap his head around the only consumer upgrade to these technologies, some kind of blue ray. Now he was dealing with stuff most people who were actually from this era would call impossible if they hadn't seen it themselves.

Joe gave Mr. Freezy a second to ogle then started the briefing,

"Alright, Two three man teams, Team One is Top, Moran, and myself,"

Bunny couldn't help but look slighted, Joe continued,

"No offense big guy, need Kyle for the locks. Keypad, no passcards, and as far as we know, Mindreader is out when it comes to penetrating this building, too risky. That means Team Two is our resident Avengers and Bunny.

Backdoor is reinforced, but kickable, I guess rock-paper-scissors for who gets to do that, Team One will give the go order once we bypass the electronics, all targets are designated hostile, try and keep a couple with a pulse for questioning."

Joe noticed Steve give him a hard look after that last sentence,

"You got something to say Captain?"

"How about we try to keep as many alive as possible unless absolutely necessary?"

He didn't mean to, but Top laughed, it was an almost instinctual gut reaction,

"Did not mean to offend sir, but you've seen what these guys are willing to do, and that shield of yours almost got one of our men killed last time out. It stops the bullets from hitting you, but it sends 'em back towards everyone else, including us. Do you even have a weapon on you right now?"

Steve didn't think it would be this hard blending in with modern spec-ops guys, but the man was right, he almost got someone killed, and no, he didn't have a weapon, not even a pocket knife, he couldn't help but wonder what hell he was even doing here. They could run this op without him and easily put it in the win category. At the very least he knew Bucky was completely in his element. 'Wouldn't be surprised if the DMS snakes him away from The Avengers' he couldn't help but think.

"I do not. You don't need me in there, I can stay out here and run field support."

Joe shook his head,

"You don't get off that easy gramps,"

Joe shrugged off his rifle and held it out to Steve,

"You know how to use one of these?"

To Steve, it may as well have been a raygun. He understood rifles, but this looked alien to him. Sleek, black, so many little gadgets and lights and lasers around the barrel, he'd never fired a fully automatic weapon that wasn't a Thompson submachine gun, he knew it wouldn't compare.

"I am really starting to show my age here, no, I have no idea what to do with that thing."

Joe put it back and unholstered his pistol, 

Still far more advanced than any other weapon Cap had held, but it looked infinitely more familiar, find the magazine release, find the de-cocking lever, get a feel for the weird synthetic grips, yeah, look down the sights that are glowing for some reason, yeah, this will work.

"It's not what I'm used to, but I will hit what I aim at."

That was good enough for Joe,

"Alright, doors open, flashbangs, mop up, look for any secret hidey-holes these guys seem so fond of. Combat callsigns from here on out, let's go."

In unison Top and Bunny responded,

"Hoo-ah"

The other three nodded in approval, this op was for intel, but they all knew it was also revenge. Cap almost got someone killed, but those bastards succeeded where he failed threefold, and they had to pay for that.

 

Cabal/H.Y.D.R.A Safehouse  
St. Petersburg, Russia  
03:20 AM

Both teams were in place, Moran silently working on the keypad lock out front. Three red lights flickered off momentarily before coming back on, displaying bright green.

"Cowboy, we're in, give Cap the go ahead."

"Good work, um... what's your callsign anyway?"

"Tumbler."

Joe let a hint of grin out,

"Duh, lockpicks and stuff, gotcha, alright, giving the go order,"

Joe touched his earpiece, switching to the team channel

"Cowboy to Cap, kick the doors"

Around back Cap and Bucky stood away, giving Bunny ample room for a solid kick. They'd taken Joe's advice and rock-paper-scissored and it came down to Bunny. Who very much hoped he could kick this door in and not look like an idiot in front Cap and Bucky.

He lurched back, lifting his right leg, and thrust forwards with all his weight at the center of the door. It's not the easiest way to kick in a door, but if you do it right, it'll fly off its hinges and seriously mess up anyone of the other side. This particular kick had the desired effect.

At the front Joe led the team in, putting double-taps into the two closest guys with his rifle, juked left and went up a flight of stairs to clear the top floor, Moran was close behind. Top kept his rifle at the ready and cleared the remaining two rooms between him and Team 2.

At the back, Bunny led Team 2 into the building, the door had landed hard on one of the Cabal guys, Bunny's thundering footsteps on top just cemented how out of the fight this guy was, bringing his very favorite drum-fed shotgun to bear, he jogged up the steps to meet Joe and Moran.

Cap and Bucky cleared the only remaining room, a broom closet, before meeting Top in the middle of the house. There had been a few pops of gunfire upstairs, one big boom, then silence. Top called out,

"Echo! Echo! First floor clear!"

Joe responded,

"Roger! Echo! Second floor clear! You coming to us or we coming to you?! Nothing of note besides a couple dead Cabal dicks!"

"Come down here! So we can stop yelling!"

Joe, Bunny, and Moran came down the back steps and the whole team stopped for a quick think.

"Alright, let's see what we've got,"

Joe was bloviating a bit to let the puzzle pieces come together in his head,

"Why was this raid so easy? There should be at least a dozen more people here."

Bunny had a thought,

"Yeah, this place is supposed to house about... 20 people, there isn't even space in this building for 3 or 4, let alone furniture, or... anything really."

Cap turned to Bucky,

"Sergeant, do your thing."

Echo Team looked confused as ever, and Bucky squatting down and caressing the floor made it even worse,

"Hey, Red Scare... The fuck are you doing?"

Joe stared in disbelief, waiting for an answer,

"Oh, yeah, I have sensors and stuff embedded in here, perks of working for Tony Stark instead of H.Y.D.R.A. There's got to be a secret entryway around here somewhere, and chances are it'll be electronic."

After a few awkwardly silent minutes of Bucky's floor massage, he felt a vibration in his metal arm's middle finger, not good news like the ring finger would have been,

"Guys, I found something, but, it's not the good kind of something."

Top sagged his shoulders and looked annoyed,

"You tellin' me we walked into a trap again?"

Bucky just shook his head,

"More like we just walked into a bomb."

Everyone started asking variations of the same question, essentially, 'What?' with some more colorful language afterwards, Bucky continued,

"I'm pretty sure this whole floor is a pressure plate, and it was activated by my trying to scan it, if you heard a tiny hissing sound a second ago, that was that. We absolutely cannot move."

They all thought it, but it was surprising whose mouth it came out of,

"Fuck."

They all looked at Cap for a second, and decided they agreed.

"Anymore bad news?"

Cap refused to use the callsign Joe had jokingly given Bucky, luckily in this situation he didn't have to,

"Yeah, anyone ever disarmed a nuke before? I'm getting way high readings for plutonium here."

It was odd to Steve and Moran, but Top and Bunny knew exactly why Joe let out a small laugh and grinned,

"Actually Sergeant, I have, while fighting vampires at the same time, problem is, how do I do that from here?"

It was a good point, they had to move if they wanted to live, but they also couldn't move if they wanted to live. Bucky decided to float what would undoubtedly be a pretty unpopular idea,

"Well, If we do nothing, one of us will eventually falter and blow us all sky high, getting this panel open wouldn't actually change how much weight is on the floor, but, it could also just trigger this warhead and blow a huge chunk out of Russia. You guys up for a gamble?"

Bunny immediately objected,

"No, we wait for reinforcements, they can see whats going on through our helmet cams."

Top sighed and disagreed,

"Farmboy, where do you think the closest allied troops are from here, let alone people who have security clearance for these kinds of missions. Hell, we're not even supposed to be in the same room as Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes in any official capacity."

It hung in the air for a few seconds before Joe gave the order, 

"Do it. And in case I don't get the chance to say it later, it's been an honor working with The Howling Commandos."

Bucky nodded and set to work.

 

Cabal/H.Y.D.R.A Safehouse  
St. Petersburg, Russia  
03:43 AM

After some very intense minutes of waiting, Bucky had the panel open,

"Alright Cowboy, what's step one?"

Joe closed his eyes and envisioned the practice warhead that resides at The Warehouse,

"Unscrew the-"

Bucky cut him off,

"There's no screws here, just a red wire and a green wire... hold a minute..."

he plucked the flat, plastic faceplate off the "bomb" and saw what had triggered his sensors. An M-80 firework and a small lidded dish, filled with yellow cake uranium. Throwing those two items out the back door, he found a digital keypad.

"So, no bomb, Moran, get over here, I think I found out where those other guys are."

Everyone sighed from relief and went over to the floor panel.


End file.
